King's College London

A team from the Department of Engineering have designed a custom-built set of aluminium prosthetic arms to help Alex Lewis, a quadruple amputee, row the length of the South Coast of England in a world first.

Led by Dr Nicola Bailey and post-graduate researcher Nicos Hadjigeorgiou, a group of students from King’s and the University of Bath worked with fundraiser and adventurer Alex Lewis, to design a set of limbs to help him row 350 miles in a specialised rowing boat.

The boat is being used by him in the first half of the Pig 2 Pig endurance challenge to row from Falmouth to Dover, raising money for assistive technology via his charity, the Float Foundation. He will then cycle back to Cornwall, giving presentations en route to raise awareness about the need for assistive technology like prosthetics.

The 1000 mile challenge marks the latest in a number of endurance challenges Alex has completed since he lost his limbs over 10 years ago to sepsis.

The rowing challenge is a world first and involves bespoke prosthetic arms, which created a particular challenge for the King's engineers. To row a boat, the power from the rowing motion the body makes has to be transferred to the oar, but traditional prosthetics usually have a limited range of movement and power. Furthermore, safety is a serious concern - the researchers needed to ensure that Alex could detach from the oar by himself in the case of either being thrown from the boat or waves knocking into the oar and his body.

A bespoke prototype was developed with the student engineers working with Alex to assess his needs and expectations, and building the device accordingly. Creating lightweight prosthetics which used the power of resistance to transfer power from his body to the oar, and a quick release mechanism enabling him to detach from the oar independently, the unique design allowed Alex to train for and tackle the challenge.

Alex Lewis said, “Frankly, I wouldn’t be attached to the oar without Nicky and the work that she did with her students. Adventure may not be what everyone does on a daily basis, but pairing institutions which design this tech with end-users is the only way to make sure that it is having a positive impact.

“In the future, I hope to work together even more with universities like King’s to keep the ball rolling on projects that highlight the importance of assistive technology and show how its development can really change people's lives”.

Dr Bailey said, “Alex is always coming up with new and exciting challenges he wants to complete. This provides us with fantastic opportunities to craft engineering projects, and design and make assistive technology.

"It can be very hard for someone with hands, to design a prosthetic without input from a user as we can only guess about the effects of our design choices.

"Working with Alex enables students to understand the impact that they have through being engineer, together with the responsibility to be a force for good. We’re really excited to see him take on this new challenge, he really inspires us to advance our creative engineering in this much needed area”.

Currently, the UK would need to employ nearly five hundred prosthetic and other assistive technology specialists to match the World Health Organisation’s recommendation, and prosthetics themselves can cost upwards of $100,000. Alex's charity the FLOAT Foundation supports the education, development and implementation of assistive technology globally, with the aim of helping create a world where assistive technology is accessible and affordable for all individuals.

The researchers hope that key features of the arms, like the quick release mechanism, means that they could be used in a wide variety of prosthetics such as those used to control steering wheels and even those used to ski. By allowing users to detach from the prosthetics quickly, the arms could help prevent injury, for example if a ski pole were to get stuck in the ground.

Ryan Irving, a third-year engineering undergraduate said, "I chose this project because of the fundamental human element within it. If you had a prosthetic design pushed onto you, made without your input, it would be unlikely to fulfil your daily needs. Working with Alex, we could build together a design that worked for him and set him up to accomplish something phenomenal.

"I think it's vital that universities are involved in the development of assistive technology. Fundamentally, they are institutions where people come together to exchange ideas based on inherently unique experiences and understanding. Engaging with each other in that way empowers people to design and build assistive systems together, empathetically - it's something I think is truly powerful."